Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for August 2016

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Brazil: Breaking – DILMA IMPEACHED

AS EXPECTED, DILMA ROUSSEFF HAS BEEN IMPEACHED. The Brazilian Senate voted 61-20 in favor of permanently removing president Dilma Rousseff from office for breaking the country’s budget laws.

The news just broke on Brazilian media.

I’ll add English language links as they come up.

ROUNDUP
Simón Romero in the NYT.

WSJ: Dilma Rousseff Ousted in Historic Brazil Impeachment Vote. Leftist leader’s removal puts Michel Temer in power through 2018 as nation’s deep political and economic problems persist

Brazil’s Senate voted 61-20 to convict Ms. Rousseff on charges that she used illegal bookkeeping maneuvers to hide a growing budget deficit, deemed an impeachable crime in a nation with a history of hyperinflation and fiscal mismanagement. Two-thirds of Brazil’s 81 senators, or 54 votes, were needed to remove Ms. Rousseff from power.

USA Today: Brazil’s Senate removes President Rousseff from office

Dilma Rousseff stripped of Brazil presidency as Senate votes to impeach her

She also faces a vote on whether she should be banned from public office for eight years.

Lawmakers voted after a five-day hearing in which half a dozen witnesses and more than 60 senators spoke, finishing at around 3.30am this morning.

Ricardo Lewandowski, president of the Supreme Court, was to ask senators to answer by electronic panel the question: “Did the accused, the President of the Republic, Dilma Vana Rousseff, commit the crimes of responsibility corresponding to borrowing from a financial institution controlled by the Union and the opening credits without authorisation from Congress, of which she is accused and should be condemned to the loss of her office, being therefore disqualified from the exercise of any public office for a period eight years?”

However he later agreed to a request to hold two separate votes on the impeachment and the ban.

According to Reuters, senators voted 42-36 to allow Rousseff to retain the right to hold public office.

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Cuba: NBC orgasmic over “historic flight”

NBC correspondent Kerry Sanders was thrilled, thrilled, over flying to Cuba (h/t TCS),

The on-screen headline proclaimed: “U.S. Flights to Cuba Resume; Jetblue Makes History With First Flight in More Than 50 years.” Sanders gushed: “This morning, Americans can once again buy a commercial airline ticket and fly from the U.S. directly to Cuba. The last scheduled U.S. Flight was a Pan-Am DC-6 back in 1961. JFK was in the White House, hardly anyone had heard of the Beatles.”

Funny that Sanders mentioned the Beatles; Fidel Castro banned them back in ’64.



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Mr. Trump goes to Mexico UPDATED

I have a post coming up at noon. Here’s a teaser: Hillary seethes while Trump shows up.

The ninety-minute meeting between Trump and Peña Nieto is scheduled for 3pm Mexico time (2pm Eastern).

UPDATE:
Read my post, Mr. Trump goes to Mexico.

Headline on Bloomberg Business Channel: Mexicans wake to shock and awe on Trump visit. Their website headline reads, Trump’s Surprise Visit Sparks Outrage in Mexico. The more the Mexicans protest, the more Trump has to gain.

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Argentina: Corradi sings about Cristina’s cabinet

A judge authorized the extradition of drug chief Ibar Pérez Corradi to the U.S., where he faces charges over the shipment of 80 doses of oxycodone to that country by private mail, but another judge moved to block the extradition.

While this goes on, Pérez Corradi is pending trial over the General Rodríguez triple murder of Sebastián Forza, Damian Ferron and Leopoldo Bina, involving methamphetamine trafficking, and he’s talking about the involvement of Cristina Fernández’s cabinet members (emphasis added):
Drug Dealer Claims He Was Under Ex-President Kirchner’s Protection. Corradi Says He Received Three False Identities While on the Run

After four years on the run, Corradi was arrested on Sunday, June 19 in Brazil, where he was expelled and taken to Paraguay. There, he faced charges of impersonation. On July 5, he was extradited to Argentina.
. . .
“I was given protection to disappear,” he said. “The day of the raid, I went through the door of my house and asked a policeman what had happened. And he tells me that they are looking for Pérez Corradi.”

He said those who gave him protection worked with him while trafficking ephedrine. He noted he paid US $750,000 per month to the former Chief of Staff Cristina Kirchner Anibal Fernandez, whom he accused of being involved in the trafficking operation.

He also accused the former head of the Federal Public Revenue Administration (AFIP) Ricardo Echegaray of being involved with the smuggling.

“Smuggling and ephedrine were the business of Echegaray under the protection of Anibal Fernandez,” he said.

Corradi denies being involved in the triple murder,

“I did not kill Forza, Bina and Ferron. I do not know who killed them,” Corradi said. “They had no way to hurt me, to steal my business … it is like a tiny baby came and slapped you; there is no way that would harm me. I had no reason to kill the three of them. If these three dead kids appear, as they appeared, linked to ephedrine, it is obvious that the business was going to fester and it was going to stop being business for everyone.”

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Brazil: Dilma testifies

Suspended president Dilma Rousseff testified at her Senate impeachment trial yesterday,

She is accused of illegally manipulating the budget to hide a growing deficit.

Ms Rousseff said she was the victim of a political coup d’etat led by those she defeated at the polls in 2014.

At the WSJ,

Ms. Rousseff is accused of violating budget laws by delaying government payments to a state-controlled bank, in effect forcing the lender to provide her administration with allegedly illegal short-term loans that made the country’s budget situation appear better than it was. Ms. Rousseff has denied wrongdoing.

Two-thirds, or 54, of the Senate’s 81 lawmakers need to vote against her for her to be ousted. Otherwise, she can immediately return to office. A question-and-answer session between Ms. Rousseff and senators followed the speech, and wasn’t expected to end until 11:00 p.m. or later. The final vote is expected to take place Tuesday night or sometime Wednesday.

The BBC updated its chart of the impeachment process:
[Read more…]

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Venezuela: Ecuadorian lawmakers expelled

The Communist regime expelled Ecuadorian lawmakers who were visiting members of the opposition, and, on the same day, transferred a former mayor of a city near the Colombian border that had organized anti-government protest from house arrest to jail.

DW has the story:
Venezuela ex-mayor Daniel Ceballos transferred to jail from house arrest

Venezuela has jailed opposition leader Daniel Ceballos who was under house arrest, and expelled visiting MPs from Ecuador. The opposition has called for early elections and is preparing to hold nationwide rallies.

Ceballos’s wife tweeted the video of her husband being removed from his home at 3AM by agents of the secret service (Sebin)

The Ecuadorian delegation was lead by Christian Social Party presidential candidate Cynthia Viteri, who were surrounded by armed patrols, uniformed, hooded, and undercover policemen and agents of the secret service (Sebin), held against their will at Sebin offices for several hours and later taken to the airport.

Rafael Correa denies that Viteri’s delegation was visiting in an official capacity.

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